Relevant Field
The present disclosure relates to detecting the presence or absence of materials with differing dielectric properties or a material change. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a system, method and apparatus for said detection. Some embodiments relate to detection of air bubbles in a fluid line using a split-ring resonator, e.g., air bubble detection in an intravenous fluid line using a split-ring resonator. Some embodiments relate to the detection of the coagulation time of blood samples using a split-ring resonator.
Description of Related Art
Providing patient care in a hospital generally necessitates the interaction of numerous professionals and caregivers (e.g., doctors, nurses, pharmacists, technicians, nurse practitioners, etc.) and any number of medical devices/systems needed for treatment of a given patient. Despite the existence of systems intended to facilitate the care process, such as those incorporating electronic medical records (“EMR”) and computerized provider order entry (“CPOE”), the process of providing comprehensive care to patients including ordering and delivering medical treatments, such as medications, is associated with a number of non-trivial issues. One such medical treatment involves the insertion of fluid into a patient. The insertion of fluid into the patient may be accomplished by using a bag of fluid that is positioned above a patient and an intravenous fluid from the bag to a needle that is inserted into the patient. The tubing between the bag and the patient may include various devices, such as an infusion pump to control to flow of fluid between the bag and the patient. Another device may be an air detector.
Detection of air bubbles during the insertion of fluid into a patient maybe desirable for a number of reasons. Depending on the volume of air and the insertion site, insertion of air into a patient can cause a fatal air embolism. Additionally, a volume of air which is inserted into a patient is inserted in place of an equal volume of the fluid. This may also cause serious concern with some medicaments. For this reason, it is desirable to monitor a fluid line for the presence of air.
Known solutions monitor for air in a fluid line often utilize ultrasonic sensors or sensors monitoring the electric impedance of the fluid line. While such sensors may detect the presence of an air bubble in a fluid, these sensors tend to be expensive. For some applications, such sensors are prohibitively expensive. Additionally, the resolution of these sensors is generally less than ideal. A need therefore exists for a sensor which may accurately and consistently detect the presence of an air bubble in a fluid line at lower cost. Additionally, a need exists for a sensor with resolution high enough to detect the presence of smaller volumes of air. An air bubble sensor using at least one split ring resonator satiates this need by providing a higher resolution sensor at a price approximately ten times lower than conventional sensor technologies.